Addiction as an acquired neurodivergence is not an idea I've encountered before, but it makes a lot of sense. Your broader points about addiction, and the difficulty of explaining it to someone who hasn't experienced it, absolutely fit in with my own experience (alcoholic, sober about 7.5 years).
I'm curious, do you have any thoughts about addiction to one particular thing as opposed to a wide variety? It sounds like your experience was the latter, whereas I messed around with a lot of drugs through my 20s, and had little trouble regulating my intake or stopping when the costs outweighed the benefits. But my drinking increased sometime in my early 30s, and when I tried to control it, it spun completely out of control. Alcohol is the only substance that's ever had that kind of power over me, and I would say I was only truly addicted to it from that age, after 15-odd years of drinking without any serious problems.
Learn some insights about addiction and how to overcome it:
https://open.substack.com/pub/soberchristiangentlemanpodcast/p/essay-paradox-of-overcoming-addiction?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=31s3eo
Addiction as an acquired neurodivergence is not an idea I've encountered before, but it makes a lot of sense. Your broader points about addiction, and the difficulty of explaining it to someone who hasn't experienced it, absolutely fit in with my own experience (alcoholic, sober about 7.5 years).
I'm curious, do you have any thoughts about addiction to one particular thing as opposed to a wide variety? It sounds like your experience was the latter, whereas I messed around with a lot of drugs through my 20s, and had little trouble regulating my intake or stopping when the costs outweighed the benefits. But my drinking increased sometime in my early 30s, and when I tried to control it, it spun completely out of control. Alcohol is the only substance that's ever had that kind of power over me, and I would say I was only truly addicted to it from that age, after 15-odd years of drinking without any serious problems.